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We got into an argument whether the judges who went to India might with propriety engage in trade. Johnson warmly maintained that they might; "For why," he urged, "should not judges get riches, as well as those who deserve them less?" I said, they should have sufficient salaries, and have nothing to take off their attention from the affairs of the public. JOHNSON. "No judge, Sir, can give his whole attention to his office; and it is very proper that he should employ what time he has to himself to his own advantage, in the most profitable manner." "Then, Sir," said Davies, who enlivened the dispute by making it somewhat dramatic, "he may become an insurer; and when he is going to the bench, he may be stopped, Your Lordship cannot go yet; here is a bunch of invoices; several ships are about to sail. JOHNSON."Sir, you may as well say a judge should not have a house; for they may come and tell him, 'Your Lordship's house is on fire;' and so, instead of minding the business of his court, he is to be occupied in getting the engines with the greatest speed. There is no end of this. Every judge who has land trades to a certain extent in corn or in cattle, and in the land itself; undoubtedly his steward acts for him, and so do clerks for a great merchant. A judge may be a farmer, but he is not to feed his own pigs. A judge may play a little at cards for his amusement; but he is not to play at marbles, or chuck farthings in the Piazza. No, Sir, there is no profession to which a man gives a very great proportion of his time. It is wonderful, when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession. No man would be a judge, upon the condition of being totally a judge. The best employed lawyer has his mind at work but for a small proportion of his time; a great deal of his occupation is merely mechanical. I once wrote for a magazine: I made a calculation, that if I should write but a page a day, at the same rate, I should, in ten years, write nine volumes in folio, of an ordinary size and print." BOSWELL. "Such as Carte's History?'" JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; when a man writes from his own mind, he writes very rapidly. The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in

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1 Yet see antè, p. 299., how he censured a judge because he wore a round hat in the country, and farmed his own demesne. CROKER, 1846.

2 Johnson certainly did, who had a mind stored with knowledge, and teeming with imagery; but the observation is not applicable to writers in general. BosWELL.

3 There has probably been some mistake as to the terms of this supposed extraordinary contract, the recital of which from hearsay afforded Johnson so much play for his sportive acuteness, Or if it was worded as he supposed, it is so strange that I should conclude it was a joke. Mr. Gardener, I am assured, was a worthy and liberal man. — BOSWELL. 4 At the Club, where, as Mr. Hatchett, from the records of the club, informed me, there were present Mr. Charles Fox (president), Sir J. Reynolds, Drs. Johnson and Percy, Messrs. Beauclerk, Boswell, Chamier, Gibbon, Langton, and Steevens. It may be observed how very rarely Boswell records the conversation at the Club. One motive of this silence, probably, was, that most of the members were still

reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library, to make one book.

I argued warmly against the judges trading, and mentioned Hale as an instance of a perfect judge, who devoted himself entirely to his office. JOHNSON. "Hale, Sir, attended to other things besides law; he left a great estate." BosWELL. "That was because what he got accumulated without any exertion and anxiety on his part."

While the dispute went on, Moody once tried to say something on our side. Tom Davies clapped him on the back, to encourage him. Beauclerk, to whom I mentioned this circumstance, said, "that he could not conceive a more humiliating situation than to be clapped on the back by Tom Davies."

We spoke of Rolt, to whose 'Dictionary of Commerce' Dr. Johnson wrote the preface. JOHNSON. "Old Gardener, the bookseller, employed Rolt and Smart to write a monthly miscellany, called The Universal Visitor.' There was a formal written contract, which Allen the printer saw. Gardener thought as you do of the judge. They were bound to write nothing else; they were to have, I think, a third of the profits of his sixpenny pamphlet; and the contract was for ninety-nine years. I wish I had thought of giving this to Thurlow, in the cause about literary property. What an excellent instance would it have been of the oppression of booksellers towards poor authors!" smiling.3 Davies, zealous for the honour of the trade, said Gardener was not properly a bookseller. JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir; he certainly was a bookseller. He had served his time regularly, was a member of the Stationers' Company, kept a shop in the face of mankind, purchased copyright, and was a bibliopole, Sir, in every sense. I wrote for some months in The Universal Visitor' for poor Smart, while he was mad, not then knowing the terms on which he was engaged to write, and thinking I was doing him good. I hoped his wits would soon return to him. Mine returned to me, and I wrote in 'The Universal Visitor' no longer."

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Friday, 7th April, I dined with him at a tavern, with a numerous company.+ JOHNSON. "I have been reading 'Twiss's Travels in

living when he published, and might not have approved such a breach of social confidence; and except in one instance (post, April 3. 1778) he confines his report to what Johnson or himself may have said: he is also careful to avoid any thing that could give offence, except, I think, to Mr. Gibbon, whom on one or two occasions he seems to treat with less reserve than the others. Whether there was any reason for this beyond Boswell's dislike of Gibbon's scepticism, I know not. But in fact Boswell and Johnson met very rarely at the Club. Boswell's visits to London were not more than biennial and for short periods, and even then he was not a regular attendant at the Club, nor indeed was Johnson after Boswell's admission: and it appears by the records which Mr. Milman has been so good as to re-examine at my request, that they never met there above seven or eight times in their whole lives. The Club had the honour of Johnson's name, but, after the first few years, very little of his copany. CROKER, 1846.

Spain', which are just come out. They are as good as the first book of travels that you will take up. They are as good as those of Keysler or Blainville; nay, as Addison's, if you except the learning. They are not so good as Brydone's, but they are better than Pococke's. I have not, indeed, cut the leaves yet; but I have read in them where the pages are open, and I do not suppose that what is in the pages which are closed is worse than what is in the open pages. It would seem," he added, "that Addison had not acquired much Italian learning, for we do not find it introduced into his writings. The only instance that I recollect is his quoting Stavo bene; per star meglio, sto qui.'

2

I mentioned Addison's having borrowed many of his classical remarks from Leandro Alberti. Mr. Beauclerk said, "It was alleged that he had borrowed also from another Italian author." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, all who go to look for what the classics have said of Italy must find the same passages; and I should think it would be one of the first things the Italians would do on the revival of learning, to collect all that the Roman authors have said of their country."

Ossian being mentioned;-JOHNSON. "Supposing the Irish and Erse languages to be the same, which I do not believe 5, yet as there is no reason to suppose that the inhabitants of the Highlands and Hebrides ever wrote their native language, it is not to be credited that a long poem was preserved among them. If we had no evidence of the art of writing being practised in one of the counties of England, we should not believe that a long poem was preserved there, though in the neighbouring counties, were the same language was spoken, the inhabitants could write." BEAUCLERK. "The ballad of 'Lilliburlero' was once in the mouths of all the people of this country, and is said to have had a great effect in bringing about the revolution. Yet I question whether any body can repeat it now; which shows

1 Richard Twiss, Esq. also published a Treatise of Chess, and a Tour through Ireland. See post, pp. 456, 457.-CROKER.

2 Addison, however, does not mention where this celebrated epitaph, which has eluded a very diligent inquiry, is found. MALONE. I have found it quoted in old Howell. "The Italian saying may be well applied to poor England:

I was well-would be better-took physic― and died." " -Lett. Jan. 20. 1647. CROKER.

He

3 This observation is, as Mr. Markland observes to me, to be found in Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son:- But if credit is to be given to Addison himself, (and who can doubt his veracity?) this supposition must be groundless. expressly says, "I have taken care to consider particularly the several passages of the ancient poets, which have any relation to the places or curiosities I met with for, before 1 entered on my voyage, I took care to refresh my memory among the classic authors, and to make such collections out of them as I might afterwards have occasion for, &c."Preface. CROKER.

4 See antè, p. 372.-C.

5 He was in error- they undoubtedly are. See antè, p. 231. n. 2.-CROKER.

6 Of this celebrated song, Burnet says, "Perhaps never had so slight a thing so great an effect." According to Lord Dartmouth," there was a particular expression in it which the king remembered he had made use of to the Earl of Dorset, from whence it was concluded that he was the

how improbable it is that much poetry should be preserved by tradition."

One of the company suggested an internal objection to the antiquity of the poetry said to be Ossian's, that we do not find the wolf in it, which must have been the case had it been of that age.

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The mention of the wolf had led Johnson to think of other wild beasts; and while Sir Josuaa Reynolds and Mr. Langton were carrying on a dialogue about something which engaged them earnestly, he, in the midst of it, broke out, Pennant tells of bears." What he added I have forgotten. They went on, which he, being dull of hearing, did not perceive, or, if he did, was not willing to break off his talk; so he continued to vociferate his remarks, and bear ("like a word in a catch," as Beauclerk said) was repeatedly heard at intervals; which coming from him who, by those who did not know him, had been so often assimilated to that ferocious animal, while we who were sitting round could hardly stifle laughter, produced a very ludicrous effect. Silence having ensued, he proceeded: "We are told, that the black bear is innocent; but I should not like to trust myself with him." Mr. Gibbon muttered in a low tone of voice, "I should not like to trust myself with you." This piece of sarcastic pleasantry was a prudent resolution, if applied to a competition of abilities.7

Patriotism having become one of our topics, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start:-"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." 8 But let it be considered, that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism, which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for self-interest. I maintained, that certainly all patriots were not scoundrels. Being urged (not by Johnson) to name one exception, I mentioned an eminent person", whom we all greatly admired. JOHNSON. “Sir, I do not say that he is not honest; but we have

author." The song will be found in Percy's Reliques, vol. ii. p. 376., where it is attributed to Lord Wharton.—MARK

LAND.

7 Mr. Green, the anonymous author of the "Diary of a Lover of Literature" (printed at Ipswich), states, under the date of 13th June, 1796, that a friend whom he designates by the initial M. (and whom I believe to be my able and obliging friend Sir James Mackintosh), talking to him of the relative ability of Burke and Gibbon, said, Gibbon might have been cut our of a corner of Burke's mind without his missing it." I fancy, now that enthusiasm has cooled, Sir James would be inclined to allow Gibbon a larger share of mind, though his intellectual powers can never be compared with Mr. Burke's. -CROKER, 1831. Sir James read this note before it was published, but made no observation. — CROKER, 1846.

This remarkable sortie, which has very much amused the world, will hereafter be still more amusing, when it is known, that it appears, by the books of the Club, that at the moment it was uttered, Mr. Foz was in the chair. C. 1831. So it appeared on Mr. Hatchett's statement, but a more accurate consideration of the mode in which the records of the club were kept now leads me to think that Mr. Fox, though appointed president for the evening, was not present, and that his place was filled by Gibbon. I am sorry to be obliged to throw doubt on so pleasant an anecdote.-CROKER, 1846. 9 No doubt Mr. Burke. -CROKER.

no reason to conclude from his political conduct that he is honest. Were he to accept a place from this ministry, he would lose that character of firmness which he has, and might be turned out of his place in a year. This ministry is neither stable, nor grateful to their friends, as Sir Robert Walpole was; so that he may think it more for his interest to take his chance of his party coming in."

Mrs. Pritchard being mentioned, he said, "Her playing was quite mechanical. It is wonderful how little mind she had. Sir, she had never read the tragedy of Macbeth all through. She no more thought of the play out of which her part was taken, than a shoemaker thinks of the skin out of which the piece of leather of which he is making a pair of shoes is cut."

On Saturday, April 8., I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's, where we met the Irish Dr. Campbell. Johnson had supped the night before at Mrs. Abington's with some fashionable people whom he named; and he seemed much pleased with having made one in so elegant a circle. Nor did he omit to pique his mistress a little with jealousy of her housewifery; for he said, with a smile," Mrs. Abington's jelly, my dear lady, was better than yours."

Mrs. Thrale, who frequently practised a coarse mode of flattery, by repeating his bon mots in his hearing, told us that he had said, a certain celebrated actor was just fit to stand at the door of an auction-room with a long pole, and cry, "Pray, gentlemen, walk in;' and that a certain author, upon hearing this, had said, that another still more celebrated actor was fit for nothing better than that, and would pick your pocket after you came out. JOHNSON. "Nay, my dear lady, there is no wit in what our friend added; there is only abuse. You may as well say of any man that he will pick a pocket. Besides, the man who is stationed at the door does not pick people's pockets; that is done within by the auctioneer."

Mrs. Thrale told us that Tom Davies re

1 Probably Sheridan. - CROKER.

Certainly Garrick; the author was perhaps, Murphy: a great friend of the Thrales, and who had occasional differences with Garrick.— CROKER.

3 See antè, p. 133.

C.

4 Let me here be allowed to pay my tribute of most sincere gratitude to the memory of that excellent person, my intimacy with whom was the more valuable to me, because my first acquaintance with him was unexpected and unsolicited. Soon after the publication of my "Account of Corsica," he did me the honour to call on me, and approaching me with a frank courteous air, said, “ My name, Sir, is Oglethorpe, and I wish to be acquainted with you." I was not a little flattered to be thus addressed by an eminent man, of whom I had read in Pope, from my early years,

"Or, driven by strong benevolence of soul,

Will fly like Oglethorpe from pole to pole."

I was fortunate enough to be found worthy of his good opinion, insomuch, that I not only was invited to make one in the many respectable companies whom he entertained at his table, but had a cover at his hospitable board every day when I happened to be disengaged; and in his society I never failed to enjoy learned and animated conversation, seasoned with genuine sentiments of virtue and religion. BOSWELL. See antè, p. 35 n. 7.-C.

5" Dr. Johnson," says Mrs. Piozzi, “did not like any one who said they were happy, or who said any one else was 'It was all cant,' he would cry; the dog knows he is

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peated, in a very bald manner, the story of Dr. Johnson's first repartee to me, which I have related exactly. He made me say, "I was born in Scotland," instead of "I come from Scotland;" so that Johnson's saying, "That, Sir, is what a great many of your countrymen cannot help," had no point, or even meaning; and that upon this being mentioned to Mr. Fitzherbert, he observed. "It is not every man that can carry a bon mot."

On Monday, April 10., I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, with Mr. Langton and the Irish Dr. Campbell, whom the General had obligingly given me leave to bring with me. This learned gentleman was thus gratified with a very high intellectual feast, by not only being in company with Dr. Johnson, but with General Oglethorpe, who had been so long a celebrated name both at home and abroad.

I must, again and again, entreat of my readers not to suppose that my imperfect record of conversation contains the whole of what was said by Johnson, or other eminent persons who lived with him. What I have preserved, however, has the value of the most perfect authenticity. He this day enlarged upon Pope's melancholy remark,

"Man never is, but always to be blest.” He asserted, that the present was never a happy state to any human being; but that, as every part of life, of which we are conscious, was at some point of time a period yet to come, in which felicity was expected, there was some happiness produced by hope. Being pressed upon this subject, and asked if he really was of opinion, that though, in general, happiness was very rare in human life, a man was not sometimes happy in the moment that was present, he answered, "Never, but when he is drunk." 5

He urged General Oglethorpe to give the world his Life. He said, "I know no man whose Life would be more interesting. If I were furnished with materials, I should be very glad to write it."6

miserable all the time.' A friend whom he loved exceedingly, told him on some occasion, notwithstanding, that his wife's sister was really happy, and called upon the lady to confirm his assertion, which she did somewhat round y as we say, and with an accent and manner capable of offeuding Dr. Johnson, if her position had not been sufficient, without any thing more, to put him in a very ill humour. "If your sister-in-law is really the contented being she professes herself, Sir," said he, her life gives the lie to every research of humanity; for she is happy without health, without beauty, without money, and without understanding." This story he told me himself; and when I expressed something of the horror I felt, "The same stupidity," said he, " which prompted her to extol felicity she never felt, hindered her from feeling what shocks you on repetition. I tell you, the woman is ugly, and sickly. and foolish, and poor; and would it not make a man hang himself to hear such a creature say it was happy?” — Anecdotes. Johnson's own habitual disturbance of mind, rendered him incredulous that any one else could be composed and happy; and to it must be attributed such lamentable sallies as this. CROKER.

6 The General seemed unwilling to enter upon it at this time; but upon a subsequent occasion he communicated to me a number of particulars, which I have committed to writing; but I was not sufficiently diligent in obtaining more from him, not apprehending that his friends were so soon to lose him; for, notwithstanding his great age, he was very healthy and vigorous, and was at last carried off by a violent fever, which is often fatal at any period of life. — BOSWELL.

the room.

BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON.

Mr. Scott of Amwell's Elegies were lying in Dr. Johnson observed, "They are very well; but such as twenty people might write." Upon this I took occasion to controvert Horace's maxim,

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mediocribus esse poetis

Non Dî, non homines, non concessêre columnæ:"1

for here (I observed) was a very middle-rate
poet, who pleased many readers, and therefore
poetry of a middle sort was entitled to some
esteem; nor could I see why poetry should
not, like every thing else, have different grada-
tions of excellence, and consequently of value.
Johnson repeated the common remark, that
as there is no necessity for our having poetry
at all, it being merely a luxury, an instrument
of pleasure, it can have no value, unless when
exquisite in its kind." I declared myself not
satisfied. "Why, then, Sir," said he, "Horace
and you must settle it."
the humour of talking.
He was not much in

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No more of his conversation for some days appears in my journal, except that when a gentleman told him he had bought a suit of lace for his lady, he said, "Well, Sir, you have done a good thing and a wise thing." "I have done a good thing," said the gentleman, "but I do not know that I have done a wise thing." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; no money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction. A man is pleased that his wife is dressed as well as other people; and a wife is pleased that she is dressed."

On Friday, April 14., being Good Friday, I repaired to him in the morning, according to my usual custom on that day, and breakfasted with him. I observed that he fasted so very strictly, that he did not even taste bread, and took no milk with his tea; I suppose because it is a kind of animal food.

He entered upon the state of the nation, and thus discoursed: "Sir, the great misfortune now is, that government has too little power. All that it has to bestow must of necessity be

1 It is strange that all the editions should misprint this quotation which should be,

Johnson's

Non homines, non Di, non concessere columnæ. "But God, and man, and lettered post denies That Poets ever are of middling size. "- Francis. 2 From this too just observation there are some eminent Hor. Art. Poet. 370.- CROKER. exceptions. BOSWELL. "eminent exceptions" destroys the force of Johnson's comThe admission that there are plaint. In a constitution of government and society like ours, influence, interest, and connections must have some weight in the distribution even of church patronage. assertion was that they had all the weight, to the utter exclusion of piety and learning. This was, and happily still is, notoriously unjust and untrue, for at the very time this rash observation was made, the bench was adorned with the names of Warburton, Green, Newton, Lowth, Moss, Shipley, Law, Hinchliffe, two Thomases, and Hurd, with others equally respectable but not quite so eminent, all plebeians, and all promoted for their piety and learning. The truth is, that in no profession have there been so many instances of the elevation of men of humble origin, but of personal merit, as in the church. CROKER.

3 Johnson alludes to Sir Matthew Hale-"I remember a saying of King Charles II. on Sir Matthew Hale (who was doubtless an uncorrupt and an upright man), that his servants were sure to be cast on any trial which was heard

1775.

given to support itself; so that it cannot reward merit. No man, for instance, can now be made a bishop for his learning and piety 2; his only chance for promotion is his being connected with somebody who has parliamentary interest. Our several ministers in this reign have outa man who meant well, bid each other in concessions to the people. blood full of prerogative,Lord Bute, though a very honourable man, statesman, a book-minister, and thought this -a man who had his country could be governed by the influence of -was a theoretical the crown alone. Then, Sir, he gave up a great deal. He advised the king to agree that the judges should hold their places for life, instead of losing them at the accession of a new king. Lord Bute, I suppose, thought to make the king popular by this concession; but the people never minded it; and it was a most impolitic measure. judge should hold his office for life, more than There is no reason why a be partial otherwise than to the crown 3; we any other person in public trust. A judge may judge may become corrupt, and yet there may not be legal evidence against him. A judge have seen judges partial to the populace. A may become froward from age. A judge may grow unfit for his office in many ways. desirable that there should be a possibility of being delivered from him by a new king. That is now gone by an act of parliament er gratiâ It was of the crown. give up a very large sum of money, for which Lord Bute advised the king to to the king, but nothing to the public, among whom it was divided. When I say Lord Bute nobody thanked him. It was of consequence advised, I mean, that such acts were done when he was minister, and we are to suppose that he advised him. Lord Bute showed an undue partiality to Scotchmen. He turned being physician to the king, to make room for one of his countrymen, a man very low in his out Dr. Nichols, a very eminent man, from profession. He had *** ****8 to go on errands for him. He had ***7 and

6

before him; not that he thought the judge was possibly to
be bribed, but that his integrity might be too scrupulous
and that the causes of the crown were always suspicious,
when the privileges of subjects were concerned."-Dryden
Ded. of Juvenal.-P. CUNNINGHAM.

4 The money arising from the property of the prizes taken
before the declaration of war, which were given to his
Majesty by the peace of Paris, and amounted to upwards of
700,000., and from the lands in the ceded islands, which
were estimated at 200,000l. more. Surely, there was a noble
munificence in this gift from a monarch to his people. And
let it be remembered, that during the Earl of Bute's adminis
tration, the king was graciously pleased to give up the here
ditary revenues of the crown, and to accept, instead of them
public patrimony, will produce more, and be better collected
of the limited sum of 800,000l. a year; upon which Black
stone observes, that "The hereditary revenues, being put
under the same management as the other branches of the
than heretofore; and the public is a gainer of upwards of
100,000l. per annum, by this disinterested bounty of his
Majesty.Com. book . c. viii. p. 330.- BOSWELL.
5 Frank Nichols, M. D.
Died 1778, æt. 80.
He was of Exeter College.
Hall.-CROKER.

Probably Dr. Duncan, appointed physician to the king
in 1760. CROKER.

7 Wedderburn, afterwards Chief Justice, Lord Chancellor Baron Loughborough, and Earl of Rosslyn.-CROKER.

8 Home, the author of Douglas.- CROKER.

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occasion for people to go on errands for him; but he should not have had Scotchmen; and, certainly, he should not have suffered them to have access to him before the first people in England."

I told him, that the admission of one of them before the first people in England, which had given the greatest offence, was no more than what happens at every minister's levee, where those who attend are admitted in the order that they have come, which is better than admitting them according to their rank: for if that were to be the rule, a man who has waited all the morning might have the mortification to see a peer, newly come, go in before him, and keep him waiting still. JOHNSON. "True, Sir; but [Home] should not have come to the levee, to be in the way of people of consequence. He saw Lord Bute at all times; and could have said what he had to say at any time, as well as at the levee. There is now no prime minister: there is only an agent for government in the House of Commons. We are governed by the cabinet; but there is no one head there since Sir Robert Walpole's time." BOSWELL. "What then, Sir, is the use of parliament?" JOHNSON. Why, Sir, parliament is a large council to the king; and the advantage of such a council is, having a great number of men of property concerned in the legislature, who, for their own interest, will not consent to bad laws. And you must have observed, Sir, the administration is feeble and timid, and cannot act with that authority and resolution which is necessary. Were I in power, I would turn out every man who dared to oppose me. Government has the distribution of offices, that it may be enabled to maintain its authority."

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"Lord Bute," he added, "took down too fast, without building up something new." BOSWELL." Because, Sir, he found a rotten building. The political coach was drawn by a set of bad horses: it was necessary to change them." JOHNSON. "But he should have changed them one by one."

I told him I had been informed by Mr. Orme, that many parts of the East Indies were better mapped than the Highlands of Scotland. JOHNSON. "That a country may be mapped, it must be travelled over." "Nay," said I, meaning to laugh with him at one of his prejudices, "can't you say, it is not worth mapping?"

As we walked to St. Clement's church, and saw several shops open upon this most solemn fast-day of the Christian world, I remarked, that one disadvantage arising from the immensity of London was, that nobody was heeded by his neighbour; there was no fear of censure for nat observing Good Friday, as it ought to be kept, and as it is kept in country towns. He said, it was, upon the whole, very well ob

Yet how enormously the metropolis has increased in population and extent since the year 1775! - CROKER, 1830. And how vastly it has increased since my former note was written! Quousque tandem ? — CROKER, 1846.

served even in London. He however owned that London was too large1; but added, "It is nonsense to say the head is too big for the body. It would be as much too big, though the body were ever so large; that is to say, though the country was ever so extensive. It has no similarity to a head connected with a body." Dr. Wetherell, master of the University College, Oxford, accompanied us home from church; and after he was gone, there came two other gentlemen, one of whom uttered the common-place complaints, that by the increase of taxes, labour would be dear, other nations would undersell us, and our commerce would be ruined. JOHNSON (smiling). “Never fear, Sir; our commerce is in a very good state; and suppose we had no commerce at all, we could live very well on the produce of our own country." I cannot omit to mention, that I never knew any man who was less disposed to be querulous than Johnson. Whether the subject was his own situation, or the state of the public, or the state of human nature in general, though he saw the evils, his mind was turned to resolution, and never to whining or complaint.

We went again to St. Clement's in the afternoon. He had found fault with the preacher in the morning for not choosing a text adapted to the day. The preacher in the afternoon had chosen one extremely proper: "It is finished."

After the evening service, he said, “Come, you shall go home with me, and sit just an hour." But he was better than his word; for after we had drunk tea with Mrs. Williams, he asked me to go up to his study with him, where we sat a long while together in a serene undisturbed frame of mind, sometimes in silence, and sometimes conversing, as we felt ourselves inclined, or more properly speaking, as he was inclined; for during all the course of my long intimacy with him, my respectful attention never abated, and my wish to hear him was such, that I constantly watched every dawning of communication from that great and illuminated mind.

He observed, "All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not. In the same manner, all power, of whatever sort, is of itself desirable. A man would not submit to learn to hem a ruffle of his wife, or his wife's maid: but if a mere wish could attain it, he would rather wish to be able to hem a ruffle." 2

He again advised me to keep a journal fully and minutely, but not to mention such trifles as that meat was too much or too little done, or that the weather was fair or rainy. He had till very near his death a contempt for the notion that the weather affects the human frame.

2 Johnson said that he had once attempted to learn knitting from Dempster's sister: post, 7th April, 1778. — CROKER.

G G

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